Women's Volleyball Weekly Release - Week 8

PRINCETON, N.J. -- It's a light Ivy League
women's volleyball schedule this weekend with only four
travel-partner matches on the slate.

The first half of the League schedule ended in sweeping fashion
as Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth and Harvard each posted 3-0 wins in
their Saturday matches. The Tigers (13-6, 6-1 Ivy League) swept the
weekend with a convincing 3-1 victory over Yale Friday night to get
in position for a first-place tie with the Bulldogs (12-5,
6-1).

Columbia (11-6, 5-2) suffered its second Ivy loss to the Crimson
Saturday evening and now sits alone in third place, two matches up
in the loss column over Dartmouth (11-7, 3-4) and Harvard (10-7,
3-4).

This weekend, the League leaders are on the road as Princeton
travels down I-95 to Penn Friday night and and Yale is on the road
to Brown Saturday night. Dartmouth hosts Harvard Saturday afternoon
in a match that will break the tie for fourth place. Columbia looks
to keep pace with Yale and Princeton, welcoming Cornell to Levien Gymnasium Saturday evening.

Entering the second half of the Ancient Eight schedule, all
eight Ivy schools are ranked in the top 100 nationally in digs per
set for the second week in a row in the Oct. 16 NCAA statistics
update.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Princeton junior outside hitter Lydia Rudnick
(Encinitas, Calif.) had the best weekend of her season as the
Tigers moved into a share of first place on the strength of her
efforts.

Against formerly unbeaten Yale, Rudnick recorded 25 kills with
only two errors, hit .424 for the match and added 14 digs in a 3-1
win. The next day, she recorded 16 kills and 10 digs in a 3-0 win
over Brown to give Princeton a 6-1 Ivy record through the first
half of the Ivy League season.

With the effort, Rudnick moved into the League kills lead with
3.72 per set and trails only her teammate, senior middle blocker
Cathryn Quinn, in points. She is averaging 4.18
points per set, though she averaged more than six per set over the
weekend.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Princeton freshman setter Ginny Willis (Tampa,
Fla.) led the Tigers to home wins over both previously unbeaten
Yale and Brown to move into a share for first place in the Ivy
League.Willis averaged 12.43 assists per set and helped Princeton
hit .241 for the weekend.

Against a Yale team that has held its opponents to a .172 attack
percentage this season, the Tigers hit .268, including .389 in the
decisive fourth set. For the match, she totalled 53 assists, adding
five digs and a service ace.

In a 3-0 sweep over Brown, she compiled 34 assists with six
digs, one block assist and her second service ace of the
weekend.